Serial rapist in Hyderabad, Anil rapes and kills 10 years old girl after coming out from Jail

If the police had left it to the angry women who had gathered at the DCP’s office when the accused, who had allegedly raped and killed a 10-year-old child was produced before the media, he would not have left the premises alive. In a case that has shocked Hyderabad, C Anil, a convicted sexual offender walked out of jail on July 1 and within 24 hours, allegedly committed the horrible crime. Clearly prison, which is meant to be a correctional home, could not reform Anil.

CCTV footage has shown Anil luring the child from near a toddy compound and carrying her away. Hours later, her body was found on a railway track.

The girl comes from a very poor family. Her parents are daily wage labourers and did not have the money to pay for the ambulance or the last rites of their daughter.

Anil was in Sangareddy jail in Medak district of Telangana on one year’s rigorous imprisonment for an attempt to murder of a sex worker. “In fact, this is the second sexual assault and murder of a minor that he is accused of being involved in. There are 19 cases against him, he is a habitual offender,” says Sumathi, DCP, Hyderabad. In fact, he is believed to have been acquitted in 2015 in a similar case of rape and murder of a minor girl, that took place in 2013.

Women groups are angry that prison authorities did not do any pschiatric mapping of the person before releasing him. At the DCP’s office, they demanded his extra constitutional execution.

“After the acid attack on two girls in 2008 in Warangal, the three prime accused were shot dead. After that the state has not seen any cases of acid attack. If we kill him now, this will send a chilling example,” said an agitated Manjula Reddy of the Mahila Congress. The police, realising the outrage, have promised to fast-track the case and promised the protesting women groups that the investigating team had collected enough evidence against the alleged rapist.

This case has once again reinforced the need for a sex offenders registry. Social activist Dr Sunitha Krishnan had gone to the Supreme Court last year to make the government create a list of known sex offenders who may have been convicted by court so that children and vulnerable individuals can be kept away.

“Safe spaces are shrinking in our society. We need to establish an institutional framework to ensure that the rapist does not go scotfree,” says Dr Krishnan.

The Hyderabad case is proof that the registry is a must.